Happy Valentine's Day, Wise Girl
by bisexual-annabeth
Summary: Percy Jackson is terrible at Valentine's Day. This year, he takes Annabeth to a musical, and thinks he's finally got it down, but unfortunately he has a little trouble staying awake…


She met him out front of her apartment building. It was unusually warm for February, but there was still enough bite in the air to warrant wearing a coat. Percy's hair was drenched in rain and his hands were shoved into the pockets of his jacket. His eyes were buzzing with nervous excitement, and he was wearing the kind of grin that sometimes slipped onto his face by accident when he wasn't paying attention.

"Forgot your umbrella again, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth said, opening hers and standing close enough for them to share.

Either he ignored her comment or he didn't hear it over the downpour. "Happy Valentine's Day, Wise Girl," Percy said, wrapping one arm around her waist and taking the umbrella with the other. Annabeth leaned he head onto his shoulder and sighed. Even in the middle of winter, he smelled like sea salt and sunshine.

"Where are we going?" Annabeth said after a moment. She was usually the one who planned their dates. Annabeth thought gender roles were stupid, and Percy was plain bad at planning things. However, every year Percy took care of Valentine's Day, insisting that never making plans made him feel emasculated. Annabeth would have argued that traditional masculinity was a ridiculous societal construct and that the control freak in her preferred to be in charge anyway, but it was kind of cute to see how much he cared. So Annabeth let Percy take control of Valentine's Day, even though things usually went astronomically wrong. Like last year, when he'd almost burned down his mother's kitchen, or the year before when he'd accidentally made reservations at a gay bar instead of a restaurant. Annabeth didn't expect this year to be any better, but at least she could hope.

"This way," Percy said, pointing to the right. Then he squinted his eyes and twisted around, leaving Annabeth to try to dodge raindrops as the umbrella moved with him. "Never mind. This way. No. Wait." He did this for a few seconds, turning back and forth and looking like a confused puppy.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Is it all right if I walk us to the nearest subway station and we can figure it out from there? Or is that too emasculating?" She said, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow and smiling up at him.

Percy scrunched up his face and looked both ways one last time before giving up. "I guess that'd be all right," he said, taking Annabeth's hand. She loved when he did that. He never made a big deal out of it. Annabeth wasn't even sure he made a conscious decision to touch her. It was just something Percy did. It was always at random times, too. They'd be sitting in her living room, Annabeth reading her book with her feet propped up on Percy's lap while he sat at the opposite end of the couch watching ESPN, and he'd start tracing circles on her knee with his fingertips without looking away from the TV. Or sometimes, when he stayed the night and she thought he was asleep, he'd start playing with her hair until he really did drift off. Annabeth would never get tired of it.

Once they got underground, Percy had to ask for directions to get to wherever it was he was planning to go, which took ten minutes thanks to his inability to keep track of which trains they had to take. Then he had to spend another five when it was time to switch trains, as he had inevitably forgotten which one to take next. Annabeth tried several times to convince him to let her do the navigation. Maps were a nightmare on Percy's dyslexia, and while they were no cakewalk for Annabeth either, she practically had them memorized. Percy declined, of course. Annabeth didn't argue with him. If being an hour late was the worst thing that was going to happen this Valentine's Day, it would still be an improvement upon last year.

Percy was so relieved when they finally reached their destination, he was almost in tears.

"I knew you could do it," Annabeth said, kissing him on the cheek and deciding not to mention that if he had let her help they could have done it in half the time.

"C'mon. You're going to love this," Percy said, leading her by the hand to the staircase.

After a few years of living in New York, Annabeth purposefully stayed away from Times Square. It was always filled with tourists who walked too slow and clogged up the sidewalks with their photography endeavors, not to mention the guys dressed as _Sesame Street_ characters outside Toys R Us who harassed you to take a picture with them and then charged you for it. But she had to admit, there was hardly anything more beautiful than Times Square at night. A million screens illuminated the sky, brighter than the stars and moon. There were people everywhere, laughing and talking and taking pictures. Even the guy on the corner yelling about the apocalypse and God's wrath was kind of impressive.

For a brief moment Annabeth was afraid that Percy had forgotten all about reservations and decided to take her to the three-story McDonalds instead (talk about underwhelming), but then he turned and started walking in the opposite direction, still holding her hand. She realized after a few minutes that he was leading her straight towards a theater.

"No," she gasped, squeezing his hand.

Percy turned around and beamed, expertly dodging tourists while walking backwards. "C'mon," he said, "We don't want to be late."

"I can't believe this," Annabeth said as they took their seats.

"I know how much you've always wanted to see a musical on Broadway. I wanted to finally give you the chance," Percy said.

"Thank you so much. Oh my gods, these seats must have cost a fortune," Annabeth said, for once feeling at a loss for words.

"Anything for you," Percy said.

Not knowing what to say to thank him, Annabeth kissed him and prayed he understood how much this meant to her.

Percy was restless for the first few minutes of the show. Annabeth knew he was trying his best to sit still, but she could tell that the way he was tapping his foot and shifting around in his seat was annoying the people around them. Percy was trying to pay attention, because he knew how much Annabeth loved this kind of thing, but it was pretty clear he was bored out of his skull. Annabeth placed a hand on his knee, hoping it would help him sit still. It did. Unfortunately, it worked a bit too well.

By the time intermission rolled around, Percy was passed out cold with his head on Annabeth's shoulder. She wondered if she should wake him up. Would he be offended if she didn't? After all, he had wanted this to be their special night, and that couldn't very well happen while he was snoozing. Then again, at least now he wasn't disturbing anyone. So long as he didn't start snoring, he would be much less obtrusive to the people around them like this.

Annabeth was impressed with how he stayed asleep through all of intermission and second act. He didn't even wake up during the musical numbers. It really was a fantastic play, and a part of her was glad Percy was asleep so she didn't have to worry about him being bored. It wasn't until the curtain went down and the lights came back on that Percy jerked awake.

Percy blinked groggily, sitting up and stretching. "Did I miss the whole thing?" He said.

Annabeth nodded.

"Oh, shit," Percy said, standing up, "Annabeth, I'm so sorry. I can take you to another show if you want. I promise not to fall asleep next time."

Annabeth stood up too and laced her fingers through his. "Don't worry about it. It was a great show, but maybe next year we could do something we'd both enjoy," she said.

"Sounds like a plan," Percy said, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Besides," Annabeth said, "The night is still young. It's a big city out there, you know. Lots of things to do."

"Oh no," Percy said, "I'm not dealing with any more possible disasters this year."

"Netflix and popcorn at my place, then?"

"Much better."


End file.
